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Page 67
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ood Glum
Thanks to all your entries we were able to help fund a life-saving trailer unit for CORDA
Arecord-breaking entry for this year's Charity Christmas Bonanza meant a bumper £355 cheque being given to our chosen charity — CORDA.
The charity, Coronary Artery Disease Research Association, was established more than 25 years ago. In 1992, it funded a bus with a cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) scanner, developed by doctors and physicists at the Royal Brompton Hospital. which has been used to discover cardiovascular symptoms in people nationwide before any symptoms appear.
This year,though, it has raised money to buy a CMR scanner mounted in a state-of-the-art trailer unit.The trailer, built by a specialist medical trailer builder in America, will be based at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London, but the CMR scanner and all its associated equipment will be hitched to a tractor unit and will travel throughout the UK, as well as into Europe for specific research projects.
The all-aluminium body—it can't be steel because of its possible negative effect on the CMR. scanner —is built on an aluminium chassis with air suspension. Such a specialist bit of kit, though, invariably means a big bill, and the total cost of the unit is an eye-watering £933,000. CORDA has raised about three-quarters of this amount, and CM'S donation of £355 — 20p for every entry we received for the Bonanza — will go towards making up the difference.
The CMR scanner has a vital role in hel identify and prevent cardiovascular disea Atherosclerosis is the main cause of cardi vascular disease, heart attacks and stroke5 and often shows no symptoms until it is to late.Atheromatous plaques (pools of fat-1 cholesterol) are present in every adult, bu most cases they remain relatively harmles However, if a plaque bursts a clot can forn the plaque, blocking the artery and triggei heart attack or stroke.
Doctors can refer patients to the unit fo CMR scanning, which will identify risks. When a patient is scanned, they lie on a be in the centre of the circular Siemens Sonat scanner:This takes cross section pictures c the patient's heart, and these can be built i a 3-D model of their heart. It allows cardic gists to recognise potential risks, or diagnc problems without any surgery.
The annual cost of operating the trailer and its kit is estimated at £322,000— and th charity welcomes any donation which woi help towards running it. •